Wines & Vines

October 2018 Bottles and Labels Issue

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74 WINES&VINES October 2018 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS WINE EAST S tanley Howell, professor emeritus in the department of horticulture at Michigan State University, died Aug. 13 at age 77. After receiving his Ph. D. in horticulture from the University of Minnesota in 1969, Howell took a faculty position as a horticultur- ist at Michigan State University (MSU). In 1970, there were only seven wineries in Michigan, but the southwest region of the state had 12,000 acres of grapevines, primarily Concord and Niagara. Howell's position was 50% per- cent research and 50% extension work on small fruits (strawber- ries, blueberries and grapes). With the support of the dean of the MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Lawrence Boger, and the chair of the de- partment of horticulture, John Carew, Howell planted a research vineyard in 1970. Two years later, he established Spartan Cellars, an experimental campus winery that taught stu- dents all aspects of grape and wine production, from planting the grapes to doing laboratory analyses on finished wines. Within the next five years, How- ell's responsibilities shifted from small fruits to full-time work on wine grape production and the research needs of the juice grape industry. His research involved evaluating grape varieties in the vineyard, including training sys- tems and crop control for high quality grape production, and in the cellar. He became a full pro- fessor at MSU in 1980. Howell retired in 2006, and as professor emeritus, received the American Society for Enology and Viticulture's Merit Award in 2007. In his speech at the ASEV annual meeting, Howell said, "There is no better way to determine whether viticultural science is a good per- sonal fit than to get into the vine- yard. That is where you can learn the realities of the vine's growth and productivity and can get an idea of the conditions and limits a commercial grower faces in the region of your responsibility." In one publication, Howell said, "We always had a series of projects. I gave each student one plot as their responsibility and said, 'You're the team leader.' It worked. Each of our master's and Ph.D. students had about a quarter of an acre with 50-150 vines. We set up to ask rel- evant production questions and employed statistical approaches producing analysis that yielded quality results." Keith Striegler, one of Howell's former doctoral students, noted that he was "the first guy to say 'we're not going to have an indus- try based on Concords. We need to do hybrids and then vinifera.'" He remembered that as graduate stu- dents, "when we used to take trips to vineyards in Michigan, it was a classroom while you were going there. He kept us on our toes. He had one of the best viticultural minds I've been around." He con- tinued, "If you look at Stan, he has students all over the place. That's a legacy that will last a long time." Howell is survived by his wife, Nancy, two sons, Joshua and Adam, a daughter, Shannon Hib- ser, and one grandson. —Linda Jones McKee Wine East Covering Eastern North America Stan Howell, Michigan's "Legendary" Viticulturist, Dies T he Michigan Grape and Wine Industry Council (MGWIC) has been a source of research funding, education and promotion of the wine industry since it was established by the Michigan legis- lature in 1985. On May 23, Gov. Rick Snyder signed bills that changed its name to the Michigan Craft Beverage Council (MCBC). Gordon Wenk, the director of the Michigan Department of Agri- culture and Rural Development, will be the council's chair. The 10-member council appointed by the governor will include: two winemakers, a winemaker that pri- marily produces cider, a small dis- tiller, a distiller that manufactures more than 60,000 gallons of spirits per year, a large brewer, a micro- brewer or brew pub license-holder, a restaurant representative who carries Michigan craft beverages, and a retail representative who sells Michigan craft beverages. Funding for the council will continue to be from non-retail, non-wholesale liquor license fees for wineries, breweries and dis- tilleries. Most of the revenue comes from licenses to out-of- state companies such as Anheuser Busch and E. & J. Gallo Winery to permit them to sell their prod- ucts within Michigan. The annual budget will stay at about $580,000. The council will award grants for research to help with the products that go into the craft beverages such as grapes, apples, hops, and barley. Other projects will include market sur- veys and analysis. After adminis- trative expenses, salaries and benefits are paid, there will prob- ably not be much left for market- ing and promotion of any of the craft beverages. The Michigan Wine Collaborative The Michigan wine industry had realized that the craft beer and spir- its producers wanted the MGWIC to represent those industries as well as wine, since the council was funded in part by their license fees. Dave Miller, owner and wine- maker at White Pine Winery in St. Joseph, and Lee Lutes, head wine- maker at Black Star Farms in Sut- tons Bay established the Michigan Wine Collaborative (MWC) in 2016 "to give a unified voice to the needs of wineries and associ- ated grape growers at the state and local level." The Wine Col- laborative now has a board of 14 directors from all regions across the state. An initial step was to apply for and receive a specialty crops grant from the USDA to help the orga- nization grow its membership. Recently the MWC established an ad hoc committee to look at the Michigan Wine Competition and the various events previously run by the MGWIC to determine how those activities could be made profitable, "or at least to pay for themselves," Miller said. —Linda Jones McKee Changes in Michigan Wine Industry Promotion After Stan Howell (in suspenders) received a lifetime achievement award in 2012 he was surrounded by former students (front, left to right): Drew Per- ry, Brian Hosmer and Bill Nail; (back): Charlie Edson, Keith Striegler, Dave Johnson, Jim Wolpert, Stan Howell, Russ Smithyman, and Dave Miller.

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